Anniversary!

A few weeks ago we celebrated our 5th anniversary. Kenny, fantastic husband that he is, planned a fun little overnight trip to austin with the kids to celebrate. It wasn't anything big, fancy, or free from children, but it was still a nice little break.
We hit the Bluebell Ice Cream factory on our way to Austin. The parking lot has hugo silos on one side, with labels identifying the deliciousness inside:

Camille quite liked the hat she got:

By which I mean, she liked to eat it:

The tour was great, as was the free ice cream scoop at the end (I got the nuclear yellow cake batter with colored sugar cookie dough, which the person serving us warned me was really REALLY sweet, thinking that would dissuade me- ha!)

Then Kenny took us to a sculpture garden, which seemed random to me, but I like that kind of stuff so I didn't question it, aside from the fact it was 100 degrees out. When we got there and he expained he planned it into our trip because he wanted it to remind me of our honeymoon trip to Victoria and the Butchart gardens. Isn't that just so sweet? Plus the garden had a few "romantic" statues (aka people making out in bushes) that added to the romantic-osity of the trip:

And for the kids, a giant chicken:


Then we checked into the hotel and had a blast swimming in a pool just by ourselves.

Then we high-tailed it to downtown Austin to see the 1.5 MILLION bats who live under congress bridge all take off for their nightly hunt. I had really wanted to see this, and kenny went along with it, and we got there at just the right time with a few minutes to spare... but unfortunately, Daniel had to use the bathroom and I thought we had a few extra minutes so I took him and ended up missing pretty much the whole thing. Kenny did get it on camera though:

Even though I only caught the tail-end of it, it was amazing. Felt straight out of Planet Earth of something.

Then back to our hotel room. Kenny had specifically requested and paid extra for a suite that had "separated rooms" so we would have a private bed and daniel and camille would get the other room with the hide-a-bed and a pack-and-play. Unfortunately, "separated" meant they just had a desk in between them, so we spent our "romantic" anniversary night in plain sight of Daniel, who gushed for hours about his "magic bed" that changed from a couch:

So much for privacy, but such are the adjustments parents must make. At least Daniel's cute.

Kenny didn't have much planned for the following day, so I googled for stuff to do in Austin and we found Barton Springs Pool, a pool formed out of a natural spring. The outer rim of the pool was improved for swimmers, but the floor of the pool was the actual spring bottom, natural rock, seaweed, deep holes and all. The water was COLD and the ground was super slippery but it was a blast (and only like 6 bucks for the whole family). I'd absolutely recommend it for anyone in Austin. Though it isn't an ideal kid pool- there are shallow areas but they are so very slippery that we just gave up and sat down and let Camille splash her heart out:

In other news, my baby is VERY FAT:

(at her 9 month checkup ther other day she was 90th percentile for weight and 10th for height)

All in all, a fantastic trip, only a little over 24 hours away from home. While part of me wishes we had a trip by ourselves (which look like we may be getting in December- 4 days without kids for my company Christmas party in Utah), in a way I'm really glad the kids were there. We all had a blast and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the family we've built together in the last 5 years than including the kids in the celebration.